1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a converter, an encryption/decryption system, a multi-stage converter, a converting method, a multi-stage converting method, a program and an information recording medium recording information, which are preferable for a vector-stream private key encryption system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a private key encryption system, a block encryption method or a stream encryption method are known. The standard of the block encryption method includes DES, RC5, etc., and the standard of the stream encryption method includes RC4, SEAL 1.0, etc.
According to the stream encryption method, a random bit string is generated, and an exclusive OR operation is applied between target data to be encrypted and this generated random bit string, thereby encrypting the target data. Hence, the encryption speed depends on the generation speed of the random bit string, so that the encryption can be realized generally at high speed. The stream encryption method is preferred for the contents (mobile communications, etc.) wherein bit errors are not negligible, and realizes flexible change in the data format.
In the block encryption method, non-linear mixing of data, i.e. an “S” function, is used. Data processing is performed in the unit of blocks, it is an advantageous aspect that various data formats (image data, audio data, motion pictures, etc.) can be employed in this encryption method. However, if there is a bit error in the data, the error may be diffused.
It is highly demanded that there should be a private key encryption system having both the advantage of the above-described stream encryption technique and the advantage of the block encryption technique.
In particular, demanded is a private key encryption system which is suitable for encrypting a large volume of data, such as large-scale databases, image data, audio data, motion pictures, etc.